Warriors Again Overcome Slow Start, This Time Eliminating Trail Blazers

OAKLAND, Calif. — The playoffs feel different for the Golden State Warriors this time around. A year ago, the Warriors were talented upstarts, a team of long-distance cyborgs who were neither saddled with great expectations nor distracted by the spotlight of a history-making chase. It was fun and games.

Now, the Warriors are the defending champions. A list of the records they have broken this season would require a spreadsheet. Nobody is mistaking them for anything other than what they are: one of the most dominant teams in the history of professional sports. All they need to do now is win another trophy.

If the pressure is mounting on Golden State, the team is doing a good job of masking the emotional toll. On Wednesday, the Warriors took another step toward their ultimate goal by banishing the Portland Trail Blazers from the postseason with a 125-121 victory in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals.

Stephen Curry, the N.B.A’s freshly re-minted most valuable player, sank a step-back 3-pointer with 24.9 seconds left before sealing the win with a pair of free throws.

“We had to fight and scrap and claw and do everything possible,” Coach Steve Kerr said. “That’s a tough team to guard and a tough team to play against.”

Curry finished with 29 points and 11 assists, and Klay Thompson scored a game-high 33 points as the Warriors won the best-of-seven series, four games to one. They will play the Oklahoma City Thunder or the San Antonio Spurs in the conference finals. The Thunder have a three-games-to-two series lead on the Spurs with a chance to advance Thursday night when they play Game 6.

For the fourth straight game of the series, the Warriors trailed at halftime. And for much of the third quarter, they sought separation. But Shaun Livingston threw a pass out of bounds. Kerr slammed his hand on a courtside table. Draymond Green came up favoring his left ankle after he was fouled on a drive.

But Thompson scored 16 points in the third quarter, and Curry drained a 3-pointer to give the Warriors a 2-point lead entering the fourth.

Later, Andre Iguodala and Curry sank back-to-back 3-pointers to push the lead to 7. The degree of difficulty on Curry’s shot was advanced-level physics — a fadeaway 28-footer over the outstretched left arm of Ed Davis, a 6-foot-10 power forward. The Trail Blazers hung around behind Damian Lillard (28 points) and C. J. McCollum (27) before Curry emerged, as usual.

“It felt like we were running on fumes a little at the end,” Kerr said.

The Warriors overcame their share of obstacles through the first two rounds of the playoffs. Curry missed six games — two because of a sprained right ankle, four with a sprained right knee. After a two-week absence, Curry returned Monday for Game 4 and scored 40 points off the bench to lead the Warriors to an overtime victory.

Before Wednesday’s game, Commissioner Adam Silver presented Curry with the league’s Most Valuable Player Award for the second straight season. The Trail Blazers took in the festivities, which included a montage of Curry highlights on the arena’s video boards. Curry, who wore gold sneakers, concluded his remarks by saying, “Let’s keep it going.” The crowd cheered.

It was not an easy series for the Warriors. They had to engineer a dramatic comeback to win Game 2. They lost Game 3. They needed overtime to take Game 4. They lost Andrew Bogut, their starting center, to a right adductor strain in Game 5. Along the way, the Trail Blazers bemoaned missed opportunities — opportunities that seldom materialize against the Warriors.

“That might be the closest five-game series of all-time,” Thompson said.

The Warriors stumbled again at the start of Game 5, falling behind by 10 points in the first quarter. Then, as soon as they took the lead, they gave it up once more, missing eight of their first nine 3-point attempts. With Curry struggling to unearth his rhythm, it was left to Thompson to keep the Warriors afloat.

On one possession early in the second quarter, the Trail Blazers’ Allen Crabbe defended Curry as he crossed halfcourt, forcing him to give up the ball. But after Thompson slipped his defender on a screen, Green found him for a 29-foot jumper: swish. On defense, Thompson tried to make life difficult for Lillard, his primary defensive assignment throughout the series.

“Klay should be tired,” Kerr said before the game. “He’s probably one of the few players in the league capable of taking on the responsibility at both ends in a series like this — chasing around a dominant All-Star player at one end and taking on a big part of the scoring load at the other.”

Sure enough, Thompson was huge for the Warriors in the first half, scoring 17 points while shooting 7 of 8 from the field, including 3 of 4 from 3-point range.